the secret rock pool not far from the house we rented in arquette-en-val was indeed a little hidden, and more than once we thought our directions were wrong when we had to drive through large puddles and overflows to get even deeper into the woods. but the real shock came later when we found it and had admired its beauty and on a hot august day were ready to jump - the water was ice cold. no wonder we look so stiff in the pictures - we were half frozen. "the pacific was colder" is an old saying in this family of keen swimmers, in memory of near zero degrees at the oregon coast one summer. not quite so sure that's true here, though. a few minutes after these pics were taken two families with at least eight kids came noisily along - when the kids jumped into the water they nearly drowned. 'so cold' they cried, before they turned all quite, just like us.
